Victims' families demand release of migrant crime data
Families of victims of crimes by migrants have written to the Justice Secretary demanding the government publish data on foreign national offences.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A group of 18 victims and their families has written to Justice Secretary Alex Norris calling on the government to release official data on crimes committed by foreign nationals in England and Wales. The families argue that the Ministry of Justice is hiding the figures, having refused a Freedom of Information request from the Centre for Migration Control and then taken the Information Commissioner's ruling to court.
The data, which would cover foreign national offences between 2018 and 2024, has been the subject of a long legal battle. The government has already been told twice by the information watchdog to publish it but has instead spent public money on legal challenges to block its release.
Campaigners point to comparable data from Finland, Denmark and Germany, which they say shows that nationals from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Iran are consistently over-represented in sex crime convictions. In Germany, according to Centre for Migration Control analysis, Afghans are linked to sex crimes at a rate 227% higher than German nationals, Iraqis 241% and Somalis around 220%.
The letter from the families includes signatories such as Siobhan White, whose daughter Rhiannon was murdered by an asylum seeker in a hotel. Speaking about the case, White said the government needs to "open its eyes and tell us the truth".
The government's own independent migration advisor has acknowledged on the BBC that some nationalities arriving through the asylum system have higher conviction rates for sexual offences. The government has also been distributing leaflets to migrants advising them not to commit sexual offences.
Critics accuse the government of a cover-up, saying that releasing the data would allow a proper debate about border policy, visa issuance and the removal of foreign national offenders. The government has not commented on the latest letter.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | GB News |
|---|---|
| Afghans in Germany are linked to sex crimes at a rate significantly higher than Germans. | |
| Albanians are the most common foreign nationality in UK prisons. | |
| European data show that Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and Somalis are overrepresented in sex crime statistics. | |
| The government issued leaflets to migrants telling them how to avoid committing sexual offences. | |
| The government took the information watchdog to court instead of releasing migrant crime data. |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
GB News presented the story as a national crisis, focusing heavily on the case of Hadesh Kabartu, an Ethiopian child sex offender, as emblematic of a wider problem. The coverage repeatedly accused the government of a "cover-up" and framed the refusal to publish data as a betrayal of the public. The channel included detailed European statistics and a live interview with Rob Bates, research director for the Centre for Migration Control, who linked the data to the need for stricter border policies.
- “But the trouble of course is that the government simply will not release the data that fully breaks down migrant crime.”
- “It was only just the other day the government effectively admitted there was a migrant crime problem when it started dishing out leaflets to migrants, explaining to them how not to rape women, how not to be paedophiles.”
- “But while the government covers up the data in the United Kingdom, we do, however, have the data from other comparable, more sensible European countries.”
This segment hosted by Nana Akwir focused on the political and legal battle over releasing foreign offences data, with a panel discussion including former Conservative MP Heather Wheeler and journalist Benjamin Butterworth. The host and Wheeler strongly supported publication, arguing the government was hiding the data to avoid "causing trouble" and that the public would fill the vacuum with speculation. Butterworth questioned what policy use the data would have, while the host advocated for enclosed camps if data showed higher offence rates among certain groups.
- “What a waste of public money for starters. I think the 11 families that have signed this letter on behalf of the whole of the nation are doing the right thing.”
- “The difficulty is I think they're going back to the original playbook from the Rotherham, from the rape gangs, because they didn't want to give the ethnicity, because they didn't want to cause trouble up in those areas.”
- “If the information is out there, if it's government statistics, then nobody can argue the toss and nobody can make stuff up.”
Broadcast Timeline
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